RedOrbit News reports that astronomers have discovered a minature solar system orbiting a distance brown dwarf using NASA’s state of the art Spitzner Space Telescope. The Brown Dwarf, a mere 8 times as massive as Jupiter is one of the smallest brown dwarfs ever detected. In addition, this brown dwarf is the smallest known to harbor a rocky planet forming disk of dust and debris.
Astonishingly, this brown Dwarf, located about 500 light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation Chamaeleon is very young. Its approximated age is only about 2 million years, making it an infant in terms of stellar bodies.
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